Gov. Pat Quinn today flatly refused to apologize for his testimonials to the honesty of his now-indicted predecessor, Rod Blagojevich, when the two ran for re-election as a team in 2006.
“No, I don’t think apologies are necessary,” Quinn said after an Earth Day event at the Executive Mansion. “I think, what we want to do is, if people find out things that aren’t right, you roll up your sleeves and you correct them. That’s what I have believe in all my life.”
Quinn defended Blagojevich as they sought re-election in October 2006–just weeks before voters went the ballot box and five months after federal investigators revealed they were investigating “endemic hiring fraud” in the Blagojevich administration.
…the governor has spent a whole lot of time pointing fingers at everyone else for their ethical lapses, but has yet to issue any sort of mea culpa for his own role in Blagojevich’s rise to power. Quinn was blatantly used by Blagojevich in 2002 and in 2006 to help boost his own reformer bona fides and Quinn seemed always happy to comply.
Quinn repeatedly defended Blagojevich against charges of corruption and happily went along with the program in both the 2002 and 2006 campaigns. When it was evident to just about everyone that Blagojevich was a criminal, Quinn cheered almost every move.
He’s been able to get away with it because people (myself included) are so happy to finally be rid of the criminal ogre that we’ve been willing to cut Quinn extra slack.
That may not last forever.
…Adding… Apparently, the guv charmed some protesters today…
Gov. Pat Quinn spoke to hundreds of protesters Wednesday as he tried to charm participants in a rally against his proposed budget.
Quinn didn’t back away from the proposed spending cuts that have angered unions and social-service groups. But in a surprise appearance on the state Capitol steps, Quinn sang the praises of grass-roots democracy.
He revved the group up and applauded its efforts to influence state policy.
As Quinn left, protesters began chanting in support of his comments.
The cuts…
* $40 million to Department on Aging’s Community Care Program
* $50 million to Child Care Assistance Program
* $7.7 million to Department of Human Services Home Service Program
And they cheered him? Oy.
*** To Clarify ***
SEIU called to say that ralliers were cheering Governor Quinn for showing up and for expressing his willingness to work together on the budget. The union disputes the AP story’s characterization of the crowd’s reaction.
With unemployment in Illinois now at 9.1 percent and the state facing an estimated $12.4 billion budget deficit, the easiest way to fix the Illinois’ economy is to ban gambling statewide, a University of Illinois professor told state lawmakers Tuesday.
“If you’re dumping money into these slot machines, you’re not spending money on cars, refrigerators, computers, education. In studies, it shows that around these slot machine areas we have people spending even 10 percent less on food,” said John Warren Kindt, a professor of business and public policy at the Urbana-Champaign campus.
A gambling ban would lead people to spend more money on consumer goods and services, which would lead to the creation of more jobs supplying those goods and services, which would lead to still more spending by the people with the new jobs, Kindt said.
“The lost consumer spending is enormous. The lost sales tax revenue - enormous. We’re losing. And when you start losing the economy, you want to go back to basics, you don’t want to keep going down the wrong path,” Kindt said.
* The Question: Does this argument have merit? If it does, then should Illinois ban gaming? If not, why? Explain fully.
A key member of Gov. Pat Quinn’s reform panel called Tuesday for lawmakers to approve meaningful state contract reforms so businesses that have given up on getting a fair shake no longer will view Illinois as the “Nigeria of the Midwest.”
Noting the state’s pay-to-play politics has been compared to a corrupt African nation, Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman said Illinois’ reputation prevents true competition for contracts and inevitably makes doing state business “more expensive, inefficient and wasteful.”
Comparing Illinois to “a corrupt African nation” is just a wee bit much. Obviously, that person has never been to a corrupt African nation or he would know better.
Some of the commission’s reform proposals regarding the procurement system prompted one wag to send me this e-mail…
I doubt any of them have ever bought as much as a pencil through a competitive bid process.
That may be true, but at least some of the commission’s procurement ideas are worthwhile, particularly “real time” reporting of the entire contracting process, identifying subcontractors and creating an independent oversight board to keep an eye on things. I’m not so sure about their plan to consolidate and wall off procurement directors from state agencies. That may not work well.
Anyway, there isn’t really a whole lot of meat in the news stories about yesterday’s hearing. Some drama, but a lot of he said/she said. So, I’ll just give you a roundup and you can discuss amongst yourselves…
* Carol Marin praises Judge Zagel for the way he handled Rod Blagojevich yesterday…
There comes an epiphany moment, said the judge, when a defendant will take delivery of the hundreds of thousands of pages of evidence and thousands of hours of wiretaps gathered against him. Then and “only then,” said Zagel, will the accused “fully understand the jeopardy.”
“It’s way too soon” counseled the judge, for Blagojevich to jet off anywhere. “I don’t think this defendant fully understands or could fully understand” until it happens.
Zagel’s imagination may be as misplaced as mine if he really thinks Rod Blagojevich is going to spend his days poring over boxes of paperwork turned over by the U.S. attorney’s office. That’s never going to happen short of a doctor diagnosing his attention deficit disorder and Blagojevich actually taking the medicine.
Blagojevich showed after yesterday’s hearing that his moment of clarity has not yet arrived…
“I respect the judge and his decision. I am trying to find a way to work to support my little girls and family.
“I’m fully aware of what the allegations are and I know what the truth is concerning me and I know that I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong.”
* And NBC, which has milked Blagojevich for all the publicity it could get for a show that would’ve been otherwise ignored, milked him some more..
“NBC is disappointed in the court’s decision today regarding Rod Blagojevich’s participation on “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!,” but excited about the casting announcement for the show this Friday. There are no plans to move the show to a location in the United States.”
* Quinn has little to say about Blagojevich: Quinn said he didn’t think Illinoisans cared about the NBC reality show “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!”
* Laura Washington had a good column this week about Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. My favorite part…
Now the headlines are getting ugly. Now the mouths at the Dirksen Federal Building are spilling salacious, off-the-record but damning details. Political “friends” of the Jackson family are allegedly chatting up investigators, about pay-to-play and quid pro quo.
All true.
* Let’s move away from that former Senate contender to a current Senate contender. As we’ve already discussed, an investment fund in the state’s Bright Start college savings plan lost $85 million last year. Normally, that probably wouldn’t be any big deal since just about everybody lost money in the markets last year. But this one may be different…
Mr. Giannoulias knew about problems in Bright Start’s Core Plus investment fund a full half-year before he finally stopped throwing money into it.
According to Mr. Giannoulias’ office, he e-mailed Oppenheimer on May 6, saying he wanted to discuss Core Plus’ underperformance and how to “turn the ship around.” But it wasn’t until Dec. 4 — after the credit markets and Core Plus’ investments in mortgage-related securities had tanked — that the office diverted all new contributions from Core Plus to U.S. Treasuries.
By that time, the fund had about completed a year in which the value of what was supposed to be a nest-egg dropped a nifty 38%.
Mr. Giannoulias office says it was urged to “stay the course” by an independent advisory panel. But the treasurer made the final decision to wait.
[A no-show grant] is one of 54 state grants frozen by the federal government as part of an on-going investigation into former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration.
* The Chicago Tribune, which has a “calendar” on its editorial page displaying the number of days since the Cook County Board increased the sales tax and the number of days until the next election, says it particularly likes expanding the sales tax base…
[Cook county Assessor Jim Houlihan] wants the broadest possible tax at the lowest possible rate. Specifically, he would cut the state portion of the sales tax from the current 5 percent to 3.25 percent and expand the tax to include services.
Could we cut the rate further if the Trib paid sales taxes on printing equipment, ink and paper? I’m sure the Mothership wouldn’t like that.
Hey, I’m kinda intrigued by the service tax myself, but all those service providers surely won’t be happy. At least, they never have been in the past.
More…
Houlihan acknowledges a reality the governor ignores—that the corporate-income tax is no longer very useful. Only about 20 percent of corporations in Illinois pay it.
Yeah, and Tribune Co. was one of those non-paying 80 percenters at least once itself.
Also, notice how they just breezed by Houlihan’s proposal to raise the personal income tax by 42 percent? I doubt they’d give that tax hike loving Todd Stroger guy that kind of break.
Donna Dunnings said she was “shocked” when her cousin, Cook County President Todd Stroger, fired her at 10 p.m. last Thursday over the potential political fallout concerning her dealings with her former secretary, Tony Cole.
Donna Dunnings says she doesn’t harbor any ill will to her cousin, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, for firing her from her position as county chief financial officer.
In an exclusive interview with the Chicago Sun-Times on Tuesday, Dunnings said she never had a physical relationship with Cole — a busboy with a criminal past whom Stroger hired in October to a county patronage job, promoted to a $61,000-a-year human resources post and fired earlier this month for lying about his criminal past on a job application. Cole also told the Sun-Times after he was fired that he was not involved with Dunnings.
Stroger “felt with all the allegations and things surrounding the whole situation that it would be better for me to step down,” Dunnings said. “I was shocked, but that happens in life. I trusted his judgment and his leadership. I know he would not do anything that was not in my best interest.”
Cole, a steakhouse busboy turned county patronage worker, said his first jailhouse calls when he was arrested in January for violating an order of protection were directly to Cook County President Todd Stroger.
“Matter of fact, I didn’t call [Dunnings]. I was calling Todd. You know what I’m saying. I was calling President Stroger and I was calling friends of his. And that’s how Gene got involved, if you want to be frank,” Cole said in an interview with the Sun-Times last week.
“Gene” is Stroger’s top spokesman Eugene Mullins, a former Chicago police officer and the president’s boyhood pal.
“Gene Mullins also was coming to bail me out . . . but he said that he forgot the funds and that’s how [Dunnings] was forced to pay it,” Cole said. “Initially, from my understanding, Mullins was supposed to have the funds to come bail me out. They came together.”
You get the feeling there’s something else going on here?
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is defending his decision not to post his income tax returns online. The returns are available only to people who make appointments to see them at Quinn’s offices in Chicago and Springfield.
QUINN: I’ve done it this way for many years. I did this when I was state treasurer. I did it when I worked across the street at the board of tax appeals. And I found that this is the most orderly way to do it.
The lieutenant governor’s seat is vacant. And if Attorney General Lisa Madigan decides to run for governor, Comptroller Dan Hynes could set his sights on replacing her, creating another vacancy.
But those are two big “ifs,” and Miller said he hasn’t made a decision yet “on what my future will be.”
“Once you start talking about it, it becomes a feeding frenzy,” he said.
That cliché of the day indicates the number of days state legislators have to negotiate major spending and revenue proposals before they’re scheduled to adjourn their spring session May 31. With ethics reforms, health care negotiations and construction projects in the mix today, alone, lawmakers have a ton of work to do in the next five and a half weeks.
Chavez and other members of the Hispanic community are preparing to go to Springfield to fight for more school construction money to ease the overcrowding. They will ask Gov. Pat Quinn and legislative leaders to alleviate the shortage by including the construction of 28 new schools in Chicago in the state’s next budget.
“We’re not going to shout and scream, we’re not there to sabotage anybody,” Chavez said. “We just want to let them know that we need the financial support.”
According to the legislative Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, state employees collectively would be on the hook for $200 million more for their health insurance plans. The commission met with medical providers today to determine whether existing contracts should be renewed for next fiscal year, which starts July 1.
Thousands of state employees could see health insurance costs skyrocket, and some retirees could be hit with a 4,000 percent-plus increase under Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget plan for next year, a legislative analysis has found.
Food programs to benefit from the stimulus package include schools in the state to buy supplies to help prepare meals for students ($3-million), $6.3 million for soup kitchens and food pantries, $3.7 million for senior meal programs, and $4-million for nonprofit and faith-based organizations to help provide emergency food and shelter.
Area steel workers are facing layoffs, as a slumping demand for steel has ArcelorMittal officials contemplating shutdowns at their East Chicago plant and U.S. Steel’s Gary Works this weekend idled its largest blast furnace after a major equipment failure, the Gary Post-Tribune is reporting.
It likely will take months to repair the damage to the furnace, which also was the newest at Gary Works. As many as 320 steel workers stationed around the plant could be idled during the repairs.
Exelon Corp. will unveil on Wednesday plans to build a $60 million solar power plant on Chicago’s South Side, a small step to fighting climate change that leans heavily on government funding due to the high cost of turning sunlight into electricity.
“It’s a way to start participating in renewable energy,” said Tom O’Neill, Exelon’s senior vice president of generation development. “Ultimately, we are putting 10 megawatts of electricity on the grid. It’s not much. But you’ve got to start somewhere.”
Good government fans could score a small but important victory today if the Chicago City Council approves a modest measure to shine some light on a dark corner of Mayor Daley’s spending.
We’re talking about a proposal by Aldermen Manny Flores (1st) and Scott Waguespack (32nd) to make information about the city’s tax-increment financing districts accessible by putting all of it in one spot online.
The Bulls have some news to announce later today and no doubt it’s what we’ve all been expecting since last October — Derrick Rose will be named NBA rookie of the year.
Rose averaged 16.8 points, 6.3 assists and 3.9 rebounds this season. Just as impressive were his elevated shooting percentage (.475) and low turnover rate (2.5 per game).
* This won’t go over too well with state employees.
The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability has a new study of the state employee group health insurance program. And by the looks of things, it appears that Gov. Quinn is all but foreclosing the preferred provider health insurance option and attempting to move state workers and retirees to HMOs…
Employees, under the Governor’s FY 2010 budget proposal, would pay increased premiums if they participate in the [PPO Quality Care Health Plan]. Currently, an employee in the QCHP pays an average of $89.57/month.
If the Governor’s proposals are implemented, as shown in Table 8, employee monthly premiums will rise to $309.56 a month or 245.5% and a non-Medicare retire would see their premiums increase from $12.98 a month on average to $582.71 a month on average or 4,389%.
Managed care HMO prices will only rise by about $10 a month, so this rate change proposal is pretty transparent. The change will also apply to legislators, so I’m wondering how that’ll go over.
AFSCME claims that moving just about everybody to HMOs will quickly drive up HMO rates. AFSCME also claims that this change cannot be implemented unless it is approved by the unions.
…Adding… Retirees who haven’t yet qualified for Medicare are shafted either way. Both their PPO and HMO rates are gonna zoom through the roof.
“It’s just another day,” Blagojevich said after the hearing.
[ *** End of Updates *** ]
* The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism publishes a weekly study of various aspects of news coverage, including leading newsmakers. Here is an item from this week’s report…
From the narrative…
The battle for fifth-leading newsmaker (1%) was a tie between three very different types of celebrities. They included retiring pro football announcer John Madden; Melissa Huckaby, the woman charged in the murder of eight-year old California girl Sandra Cantu; and indicted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who reportedly plans to ask a judge to allow him to travel to Costa Rica in order to be a contestant on the TV show, “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!”
With Blagojevich, reality is even stranger than reality television.
Tell me about it.
Blagojevich’s rating may go up this week, depending on the judge’s decision today. As you probably already know, Blagojevich has a court hearing today…
Tuesday’s hearing in Chicago comes one week after the ousted former governor said he wants permission to go to Costa Rica to take part in a reality TV show set in the jungle.
A more pressing matter is how much of his campaign fund U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel will let him use to pay his lawyers.
Apparently, they’re having yet another media circus at the federal building. More later.
* SEIU recently conducted a poll of Chicagoans. One of the areas the union’s pollster asked about was local city services. Click on the pic to see a better image of the results…
* The Question: Rate your own local government on those same criteria: Trash collection, snow removal, crime prevention and street repair.
* One of Gov. Quinn’s problems is that he likes to appoint friends to important posts instead of searching around for the best possible person. He did that with his completely inexperienced State Police director, among other positions.
At first, I thought Quinn’s appointment of his longtime friend and former personal physician Dr. Quentin Young to chair the horribly corrupt Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board wasn’t a bad move at all, despite the obviously disturbing trend about putting buddies into important slots. Young is widely respected and may have done a good job over there.
But another big problem with Quinn is that he’s not yet ready for prime time, partly because he often doesn’t do all his homework. Which leads us to this story, which combines both problems into one…
Dr. Quentin Young has withdrawn from consideration as chairman of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, citing a potential conflict of interest.
Young, a former top official at Cook County Hospital and longtime advocate of health-care reform, “voluntarily withdrew his appointment upon discovering that his former medical group practice had partial ownership in a property that leases space to a health-care provider,” a spokesman for Gov. Quinn said.
* This story about vinyl chloride in south suburban Crestwood’s drinking water is pretty horrific. You can read the initial Tribune piece by clicking here if you’re unfamiliar with the situation. Here’s today’s Tribune update…
In a statement released Monday, Illinois EPA Director Doug Scott said “the public’s health never was at risk” because the well water was diluted with treated Lake Michigan water. But one of the chemicals found in Crestwood’s well, vinyl chloride, is so toxic that the U.S. EPA says there is no safe level of exposure.
Crestwood told state regulators in 1986 that the village would get all of its tap water from Lake Michigan and would use the well only in an emergency. But records show Crestwood routinely kept drawing well water, relying on it for up to 20 percent of the village’s supply some months.
The well was finally shut off in December 2007, after the EPA tested the water for the first time in more than two decades. The agency found not only that the well still was contaminated but that Crestwood had been piping the water, untreated, to residents. […]
Before the Tribune story in Sunday’s editions, the only public hint that something might be wrong with Crestwood’s water was an Aug. 13 news release from the Illinois Department of Public Health. In the release, the agency warns that vinyl chloride might have contaminated private wells in the area, but it does not mention that village officials for years been adding contaminated water to the municipal water supply.
Crestwood Mayor Robert Stranczek did not return calls seeking comment Monday.
His father, Chester Stranczek, who served as mayor for 38 years before his son took the post, said he could not go into details about the water supply under his administration without consulting an attorney.
“But I can tell you that it was and is being tested,” he said when reached at his home in Florida. “I can guarantee you the well was being tested regarding IEPA rules and time lines. Even more.”
The former mayor, 78, has sipped on Crestwood tap water since he was born there.
“As far as the water being contaminated I don’t believe that,” he said. “Reports showed it was drinkable. Tests that were taken never showed that we had bad water.”
That’s some serious denial.
* The Kankakee Daily Journal has an editorial today about another major problem ignored by local and state officials…
Back in 1988, a Shell Oil pipeline broke, spilling gasoline into the soil and water table in Limestone Township.
Here we are in 2009, 21 years later. County chairmen have come and gone. State governments have come and gone. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, surely a toothless watchdog in this case, has yet to come up with the critical solution for Limestone residents.
That would be the construction of public water lines to carry unquestionably clean drinking water to the residents of Limestone Township.
You see, once the gasoline spilled into the soil, it occurred to such an extent that the volume would not easily break down. It will remain, toxic and treacherous, for the lifetime of anyone in its path.
Back in 2007, when Shell finally settled the case, it agreed to $46 million in compensation. Part of that was slated to build new water lines. But there was no timetable for completion. Those lines were promised in 2005.
They are still not there. Nor is there a firm date when they will arrive.
* My syndicated newspaper column this week takes a look at that poll we discussed late last week…
Pat Quinn is the most popular Illinois governor in more than a decade.
A new statewide poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports found that Gov. Quinn has a 61 percent job approval rating. The poll of 500 likely Illinois voters conducted April 14th claims that Quinn’s job approval rating is five points higher than US Sen. Dick Durbin’s 56 percent “favorable” rating, and six points lower than President Barack Obama’s home state 67 percent job approval rating. The poll’s margin of error was +/- 4.5 percentage points
That’s pretty darned good for a guy who has been widely denounced for proposing a “50 percent income tax increase.”
Drill into the numbers, though, and Quinn’s support is a bit soft, or “shallow,” as the case may be.
The vast majority of voter opinion is in the muddled middle, which isn’t surprising considering that he’s only been governor for less than three months and wasn’t elected on his own. Forty-four percent of likely voters “somewhat” approve of his job performance (compared to 16 percent who said the same about Obama) and 23 percent “somewhat” disapprove (9 percent for Obama).
Quinn’s “strongly” approve and “strongly” disapprove numbers are both fairly low - 17 and 14 percent, respectively. Few truly love or hate him at this point.
The governor’s “somewhat approve” numbers are near or above 40 percent in almost every single demographic, including Republicans. An impressive 41 percent of Republicans “somewhat” approve of Quinn’s job performance. Just 21 percent of GOP voters said the same about Obama. Almost half, 47 percent, of Democrats somewhat approve of his performance (13 percent for Obama), while 37 percent of conservatives, 46 percent of whites, 45 percent of blacks 39 percent of married people and 53 percent of unmarried folks all “somewhat” approve of Quinn’s performance in office.
That softness might mean things could change in a hurry if voters decide he isn’t living up to expectations. His tax hike proposals, especially, could move numbers fast. So far, though, they haven’t, despite widespread reporting on the tax hike plan and lots of angry commentary against it. That’s incredibly good news for Quinn, at least for now.
Quinn’s “somewhat disapprove” numbers follow about the same sort of pattern. Thirty percent of Republicans, 19 percent of Democrats, 21 percent of whites and 24 percent of blacks all “somewhat” disapproved of Quinn’s job performance. Always keep in mind, of course, that margins of error in these subgroups will be substantially higher than the entire sample.
These appear to be the highest job approval ratings of any Illinois governor we’ve had since Jim Edgar left the governor’s office in January of 1999 with job approval ratings in the high 60s to mid 70s.
Former Gov. George Ryan’s numbers dropped like a rock soon after he was inaugurated because of the quickly expanding federal investigation and his flip-flop on a sales tax hike. Rod Blagojevich topped out at 55 percent in a January, 2004 Tribune survey, although he bragged at the time that his own polling showed he had a 66 percent approval rating.
People are obviously pleased with this new change in leadership, if understandably hesitant to give Quinn a full-throated endorsement.
This will also be welcome news for Illinois Democrats in general, who have been pummeled by scandal after scandal the past few years and are attempting to deal with a gigantic state budget deficit. The result will also likely embolden Quinn and possibly strengthen his hand in dealings with the General Assembly this spring.
But, like I said above, he has to be careful here.
For instance, the governor has spent a whole lot of time pointing fingers at everyone else for their ethical lapses, but has yet to issue any sort of mea culpa for his own role in Blagojevich’s rise to power. Quinn was blatantly used by Blagojevich in 2002 and in 2006 to help boost his own reformer bona fides and Quinn seemed always happy to comply.
Quinn repeatedly defended Blagojevich against charges of corruption and happily went along with the program in both the 2002 and 2006 campaigns. When it was evident to just about everyone that Blagojevich was a criminal, Quinn cheered almost every move.
He’s been able to get away with it because people (myself included) are so happy to finally be rid of the criminal ogre that we’ve been willing to cut Quinn extra slack.
* Several members of the Cook County Board signed a letter yesterday asking Cook County Clerk David Orr to call a special meeting Thursday at 10 o’clock so they could look into circumstances surrounding the mysterious firing of President Todd Stroger’s chief of staff.
Fearing that the county’s funds may have been abused, Cook County Commissioner Lawrence Suffredin (D-13th District) called on the U.S. Attorney to investigate the circumstances surrounding the firing of Cook County Chief Financial Officer Donna Dunnings.
Dunnings was forced to resign late Thursday night last week from her position as Cook County’s CFO by her cousin, County Board President Todd Stroger. It came in the wake of questionable dealings Dunnings had with another fired county employee, Tony Cole. A busboy working at Ruth’s Chris Steak House in River North, Cole was hired by Stroger when Stroger met him while having dinner there. Cole had been arrested on domestic violence charges involving an ex-girl friend and was bailed out several times by Dunnings who used undisclosed credit cards to pay the court bails.
“I am concerned about how much money might be missing. I don’t know that there is any. I have discovered over the weekend that one of these PR people Stroger hired was with Ms. Dunnings when she bailed out this individual Cole from the County Jail. She used a credit card,” said Suffredin during an interview Monday on WJJG 1530 AM’s “Radio Chicagoland.”
* Stroger’s explanation for the firing has been widely ridiculed…
Cook County President Todd Stroger explained why he fired his cousin, Chief Financial Officer Donna Dunnings, from her $175,000 job last week: for her own good and the good of the county.
When Stroger fired her, he knew the Chicago Sun-Times was poised to reveal Dunnings twice bailed her secretary Tony Cole out of jail after being arrested for violating an order of protection, and some county commissioners were planning to take her to task for it.
“All I can tell you is that I know certain commissioners were determined to drag Miss Dunnings through the mud, and I thought it was undeserved and it would not serve her or the county for that to happen,” Stroger told the Sun-Times Monday night.
Last night, Stroger acknowledged for the first time in an interview with Carol Marin on WTTW-Channel 11’s “Chicago Tonight” program a few troubling facts.
Stroger said he knew about one of Cole’s two arrests as a county employee, although Stroger wasn’t clear on which one.
He knew that Dunnings bailed out Cole in one instance, but said he did not know about the other.
And he knew that, despite all that, Cole got promoted.
Stroger acknowledged that another of his top lieutenants, Eugene Mullins, accompanied Dunnings to bail Cole out of jail — confirming a fact first reported by Chicago Sun-Times reporter Mark Konkol on the newspaper’s Web site Monday night.
The paper went on to demand answers to seven questions. Go read them all.
“President Stroger, I do want to talk about a few other things, but not until we’re done with this,” Marin said.
“We’re done now,” Stroger shot back.
Later, Marin asked, “It’s not true that the 8th Ward, which is your home ward, has a disproportionately high number of people who have been hired by the county?”
“I don’t know where you get your information, but I [bet] you couldn’t even tell me where the boundaries of the 8th Ward are!” Stroger replied.
WTTW hasn’t yet posted last night’s show online, but check back later.
*** UPDATE *** The Chicago Tonight episode is now online, and Progress Illinois has a snippit…
In the above clip, Stroger blames the Illinois State Police backlog of background checks for not knowing about Cole’s recent arrest problems.
Stroger says the background check process takes “2-3 months.” Cole appeared on the county payroll on October 14, 2008 — about six months ago. But Stroger didn’t receive the report on Cole until two weeks ago? Huh?
Mayor Daley’s $2.5 billion plan to privatize Midway Airport collapsed today for lack of financing, leaving taxpayers with a $126 million down payment, but no apparent way to shore up city pensions and rebuild Chicago’s aging infrastructure.
But, over the weekend, MidCo informed the city that it would be unable to raise the money. Instead, the consortium comprised of New York’s Citi Infrastructure Investors, YVR Airport Services Limited of Vancouver and Boston-based John Hancock Life Insurance walked away from the $126 million in earnest money it pledged.
But the bigger truth is, the city is out more than $2 billion, money that would have gone to retire debt, replenish way-underfunded employee pension funds, pay for capital projects for the 2016 Olympics, and other needs.
It’s gone. Adios. Au revoir. The $1 billion or so the city would have netted after retiring existing debt on Midway ain’t here no more.
At a City Hall news conference today, the Service Employees International Union maintained that Chicago has a $2.1 billion surplus — from tax-increment financing and by leasing the Skyway, parking meters and other assets — and should use that one-time windfall to avert layoffs and service cuts.
To bolster its case, the union revealed results of a new poll that shows voter discontent with city services and demand for “more transparency and accountability” in city finances. The union was joined by community leaders and a handful of progressive aldermen.
Denise Dixon, executive director of Action NOW, noted that the city created “rainy day funds” when Chicago parking meters were sold for $1.2 billion and the Chicago Skyway was leased for $1.83 billion.
“It’s a rainy day, but there’s a flood coming. And when the flood comes, that’s what we’re concerned about,” the mayor told reporters.
Talk about a no-brainer. Two Chicago aldermen think the public ought to know what’s going on with hundreds of millions of dollars in off-the-books property tax spending. Ald. Manny Flores (1st) and Scott Waguespack (32nd) have been trying for months to get their colleagues on the City Council to pass an ordinance requiring the city to post the details of its tax increment financing deals online.
Flores and Waguespack aren’t trying to shut down the TIF districts, which generated $550 million for the city in 2007. What they’re worried about is accountability. Because there’s so little oversight of TIF spending, those millions are basically a glorified slush fund for Mayor Richard Daley’s pet projects.
This cycle, top Democratic targets for retirement include Reps. Henry Brown Jr. (R-S.C.), Judy Biggert (R-Ill.), Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Fla.), John McHugh (R-N.Y.), Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.), John Mica (R-Fla.), Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.) and Don Manzullo (R-Ill.).
For a month, legislative leaders have allowed Governor Pat Quinn’s income tax plan to languish in full public view, stirring up public discord for being both too big (see: politicians), and not quite big enough (see: interest groups). Now, some competing proposals are beginning to emerge, claiming to deliver a softer blow, and/or offered in exchange for tax relief in other areas.
“We could accomplish the same amount of money the governor acquires with his income tax increase by making it a one percent increase instead of a one-and-a-half percent increase, but without having an increase in the personal exemption.”
2) Cook County Assessor James Houlihan offered his own tinkering, that would accompany some other changes in the sales tax and Property Tax Credit. The income tax plan stands alone, however:
“Illinois’ tax structure must be made more progressive. To that end, relief should be targeted to those most in need. By enlarging the Earned Income Credit to 30 percent of the federal credit, raising the personal exemption to $4,000, and increasing the income tax rate to 4.25 percent, tax relief would be targeted to lower-income families. The changes would bring an additional $2.73 billion to state coffers, even with municipalities getting their 10 percent.”
Roughly, all three of these income tax plans claim to generate the same amount of revenue ($2.7 - $2.8 billion). Senator Cullerton is looking for the simpler route - one point and be done with it. Assessor Houlihan is aiming for the same end as Governor Quinn - if you have to raise taxes, make the tax code more progressive while you do it. But which one really would be an easier sell? Which plan would be more progressive?
Take a look at the chart below that shows the tax cut or tax increase by income for a family of 4 for each of the plans. Click the pic for a much larger image…
Which plan would work better for you?
If the State needs to raise $2.7-$2.8 billion in new revenue, what plan do you think would be the best?
(For those of you who can’t play hypotheticals and object to the assumption that more revenue is needed, please make sure to visit the Wonkish.com Budget Tool and share your link here which shows all your cuts).
Monday, Apr 20, 2009 - Posted by Capitol Fax Blog Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement]
In Springfield, they’ve had the same answer to budget deficits year after year: cut the fat. But today Illinois faces its biggest budget crisis ever. And the fat? It’s all but gone.
Without new revenue, there’s only one option left: deep, devastating cuts to the kind of vital services we all depend on—like home care for seniors and child care for our kids.
Drastic cuts that will hurt Illinois families and make a bad economy worse. In tough times, the right answer isn’t slashing home care and leaving vulnerable seniors on their own. Or taking child care away from working parents who’re struggling just to get by.
Tell Springfield the right answer is a plan for new revenue—a real plan that’s fair to all of us and that puts Illinois on solid fiscal footing for the years ahead.
As state politicians ponder raising the sales tax, gas tax or income tax to counter a deepening financial crisis, hundreds of millions in revenue are disappearing into cyberspace each year.
Bay State consumers typically pay a 5 percent sales tax on most purchases made in the Commonwealth, be it a new plasma television or a set of golf clubs. But as lawmakers consider raising this to 6 percent to generate an extra $750 million, more than $500 million could be going uncollected on items bought online by residents at sites like Amazon.com.
Changing the way retailers tax online purchases will require action at both the state and federal level. Faced with bleak alternatives, however, state lawmakers are being forced to look closely at Internet sales and are calling on their colleagues in Washington to do the same.
* The Question: Should Internet sales be taxed? Explain.
I think we’ve done this one before, but with the budget and economic situation the way it is, I figured it was worth another debate.
* This is the sort of thing that happens when you let the Blagojevich bean counters - who never really appreciated the actual impact of their cuts - continue to run the show….
The proposed state budget zeros out $3.5 million that goes to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. That shortfall could get even bigger because CMAP uses the money to get $11 million more in federal matching funds.
Executive Director Randy Blankenhorn says that’s important because federal law requires CMAP to sign off on federal transportation projects.
BLANKENHORN: If there’s federal money coming in through stimulus, if there’s federal money coming in through a new transportation bill, if there’s state money coming in through a new capital program, all those improvements that we all think are vitally important are in some jeopardy. [emphasis added]
Great.
Anything else going out in the agencies that we should know about? Please, try to keep personalities out of this. I’m interested in the proposed budget or current budget cuts, not your boss.
* Related…
* State cuts costly, planning group says : A $5 million cost-saving measure in Gov. Quinn’s 2010 budget may deprive the Chicago area of billions of dollars in federal transportation funds, according to a regional planning agency.
The latest poll numbers do not look good for Roland Burris. A new poll just came out, showing a 19 percent approval [sic*] rating for Burris.
The senator was speechless in response to the news about the poll, but then he went on, like many politicians do, to say that polls don’t matter.
What’s next? Will he follow every political loser in the last 60 years and invoke Harry Truman’s grand comeback?
With less than ten months before the primary, a mere four months before petitions hit the streets, $850 in the bank and only 50 people showing up for his first major fundraiser, Burris’ media adviser thinks she still has enough time to rehabilitate his image? Please…
Delmarie Cobb, Burris’ media adviser and strategist, said one major factor in making a decision on election was the status of “the rehabilitation of his reputation.” […]
“I actually feel very comfortable with where we are,” Cobb said of Burris’ reputation.
She’s “comfortable” with where Burris is now? Let’s jog her memory…
Sixty-two percent (62%) of Illinois voters say Roland Burris, the man the disgraced governor named to Barack Obama’s Senate seat, should resign. Just 24% believe Burris should remain in the Senate, according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey of voters in the state.
Fifty-four percent (54%) say they will definitely vote against Burris if he chooses to run for a full six-year term in the Senate in 2010. Only four percent (4%) say they will definitely vote for him. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say it depends upon who he is running against.
Only 19% have a favorable opinion of Burris. Seventy-three percent (73%) view him unfavorably, including 44% whose view is Very Unfavorable.
Cobb, who backed former New York senator and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential nominee over Obama, also appeared to take a shot at the president in describing the job Burris is doing.
“We should be happy as Illinois citizens, because now we actually do have a senator who wants to be there,” she said.
Aides at U.S. Senator Roland Burris’ first fundraiser since being appointed by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich wore new blue buttons that said “Run Roland Run.”
Except, in his case, he should run “from,” not “for.”
[*The Rasmussen poll tested Burris’ favorable rating, not his job approval rating.]
As predicted, the Blagojevich scandal has spawned a growth industry among good-government types, who are calling for significant changes to state laws aimed at legislating ethical behavior.
Based on six years of observing the man, it seems dubious a measly thing like a law might have stopped someone like Blagojevich.
After all, he essentially told lawmakers several times he was going to move forward with his plans regardless of what the statute books said about the limits on his powers.
“Sue me,” was one of his catchphrases.
Should some laws be changed? Yes, of course. But, the only way to stop a real criminal is by arresting or indicting him/her. Passing new laws just means more charges can be filed, which is helpful in its own right, to be sure. But new laws wouldn’t have stopped Rod Blagojevich. What we may need is more prosecutors.
* And speaking of not preventing anybody from behaving a certain way, this is from the governor’s Illinois Reform Commission Terms of Use page…
You are granted a limited, non-exclusive right to create a text hyperlink to the Website for noncommercial purposes, provided such link does not portray the Illinois Reform Commission or any of its products and services in a false, misleading, derogatory or otherwise defamatory manner [Emphasis added]
* And speaking of criminals, Gary Goehl, who once worked for Cook County Treasurer Ed Rosewell, did 18 months in federal prison and was, according to some, ” the recipient of more illegal loans than any civic official in Chicago history,” has an op-ed in the New York Times…
If you had connections or could be useful to Rosewell, a close confidant to Mayor Richard J. Daley (the father of the current mayor, Richard M. Daley), you could count on me to, say, simply erase the taxes on your property, even going back several years. Another service I rendered to the banking community was to dump million-dollar chunks of county money in “operating accounts” — the kind that paid no interest. In an era of stagflation, when interest rates were well into double digits, every million-dollar account I opened amounted to tens of thousands in annual profits for the lucky banker. As an expression of abiding gratitude, these bankers gave me cash donations for Rosewell, and basically carte blanche to write myself the interest-free loans that eventually led to my downfall.
One deeply appreciative steward of the public purse was a banker from suburban Chicago with strong ties to organized crime and friends in high places in the state capital, Springfield. It came as a little bit of a jolt, given my lowly station in Chicago’s municipal pecking order, when he told me that he was considering having the governor name me state insurance director. That I knew nothing about the insurance industry was not a handicap in his eyes; he would effectively run the department himself.
When I asked him how he could get away with it, he explained that all such appointments were subject to free-market pricing, and that he had already forked over the requisite sum — $50,000. In short order, however, my sponsor became entranced by the siren song he was using to lure me into the job. He decided to award it to himself. The announcement was followed by the Chicago news media’s exposing his ties to organized crime, and he was obliged to withdraw.
* Anyway, there was, apparently, one upside to Rod Blagojevich’s total ineptness as a leader…
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today that Illinois may have benefited in winning quick approval for so many transportation projects in the federal stimulus program because of the state’s long dysfunctional government under ousted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. […]
“These projects have been sitting on a shelf, ready to go because the state could never pass a capital budget,” LaHood said, adding other states also had long-standing delays in approving public works funding measures.
So far, more federal transportation stimulus money has been approved for Illinois than for any other state, and we have Rod Blagojevich to “thank.”
* But there were many downsides, including the deteriorated mass transit system…
How do you get the point across that public transit is old, in disrepair and needs fixing?
Well, you could try trapping a group of state lawmakers and media types in an old Pace bus without air conditioning on a hot spring day, then driving them in circles around the Loop looking for the Van Buren Metra station.
Such was the glamorous junket I took Friday along with the Regional Transportation Authority, Pace, Metra, the CTA and assorted wonks. We started out with the Cicero Metra station which seemed to be falling apart slowly, stared at rusty Pace buses and shook our heads over holes in the canopy at the Wabash/Madison CTA El platform.
It was bad, bad I tell you. The piece de resistance was the trip from Cicero to Chicago in the 100-degree bus.
* Transit agencies push for capital bucks: Metra, Pace and the Chicago Transit Authority officials say their agencies need about $10 billion in capital funding to replace old cars, buses, locomotives, stations and rail infrastructure - and to expand and improve service in the future. As it turns out, RTA leaders were preaching to the choir. Lawmakers from the city and suburbs agreed a capital program that helps public transit is long overdue
Statement of Commissioner Larry Suffredin
Calling for the resignation of President Todd H. Stroger
I have today sent a letter to Todd Stroger asking him to resign as President of the Cook County Board. I call for this extreme action because of the continuing circumstances that demonstrate his lack of leadership or lack of interest in the functioning of the County. Cook County is one of the largest governments in the United States with a budget of over $3 billion. It needs a competent full-time administrator.
His cousin, Chief Financial Officer Donna Dunnings, resigned in the dead of last night because of serious unexplained issues. Ms. Dunning has been the de facto President of the County Board telling her cousin when to talk and what to do. She has developed and put in place hiring processes that benefited President Stroger’s friends and family and is the architect of the latest plan to borrow more money than the County needs. If she has to resign, then the person who gave her all this power should follow her lead as he has on every other important County issue.
Unfortunately, Illinois does not have a recall provision for elected officials who have lost the confidence of their constituents.
The Chicago Defender has some background on the controversy…
On Thursday, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger asked for and received the resignation of Donna Dunnings, his cousin and the county’s chief financial officer, after learning that she allegedly had a sexual relationship with a county employee who was fired last week, said James Ramos, a Stroger spokesman… Ramos said Dunnings has denied having any type of relationship with Cole beyond being his boss and mentor. […]
Dunnings did admit to paying a total of $4,000 to bail Cole out of Cook County Jail twice over the past six months. Cole is now back in the county jail for violating conditions of his probation, and his bond is $200,000, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.
More at the Tribune. Stroger has said he is running for reelection but CBS2 reports…
Several African-American politicians say they plan to tell Stroger that he should not run for re-election. Organization Democrats are looking for another candidate.
* Related…
* U.S. Sen. Roland Burris and his wife had a net worth in 2008 between $906,000 and $1.8 million, Burris reports in a new federal financial disclosure.
* Sordid Dunnings debacle is another Stroger fiasco : Stroger could have stepped up and taken the blame for his incompetence and Dunnings’. Instead, he blamed the media and his political enemies.
The board approves major construction projects and equipment purchases for health care facilities in Illinois. They could include such improvements as “who gets to have an MRI machine and who gets to build a new wing,” according to Chris Mooney, political studies professor with the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
The choices the board makes have a substantial financial impact on many in the health care industry. Because of that, Mooney described the board as “a place that has attraction to those who are interested in making money.”
Gov. Pat Quinn. on Friday, named Dr. Quentin Young to head the Health Facilities Planning Board, which determines whether and where hospitals can expand.
U.S. Rep. Mark S. Kirk (R-Highland Park), considering a run for governor, says these are decisions best left to the market. “I don’t know why we need an Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board,” he said. “It’s just an opportunity for total corruption.”
But Quinn says health care can’t be left entirely to the whim of market forces. He says health care is not just another product on the market, available to serve the most profitable customers. “Health care is a fundamental right of every person in this country,” Quinn said. “Every citizen should have decent health care.”
Young says there is no perfect way to balance regulation vs. competition, but he says the board is an effort to assure that health care expenditures are made in areas that are not served, instead of in areas already well served.
Today U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and other political and business leaders will gather at Southwestern Illinois College to take part in an energy summit.
If anyone wants to know why the state is having fiscal problems, the answer is pretty obvious: It’s the jobs, stupid. Government bodies in Illinois tend to look at job-producing companies not as assets to be cultivated and nurtured, but as vaults of money to be plundered. Unfortunately for us, those firms have many alternatives, since plenty of other states are far more hospitable. So that’s where employment growth can be found.
Groups such as Voices for Illinois Children, the Center for Budget and Tax Accountability, and Protestants for the Common Good, seek to increase the Earned Income Tax Credit from 5 percent to 20 percent. If this is done, a family of four making less than $42,000 a year would be eligible to get as much as $1,000 back from the state, depending upon how much they receive back from the federal government.
Sean Noble of Voices for Illinois Children, estimates such an increase would cost the state around $350 million a year, and hopes a quadrupled EITC will come on the heels of Gov. Pat Quinn�s proposed personal exemption increase.
But many of these facilities do not have adequate resources to meet demand and struggle with a lack of state support and declines in private contributions, officials say. At the same time, federal “Safe Haven” start-up grants that provide crucial funding are phased out over time.
“We used to be hanging by a string, but now we’re hanging by a thread,” said Brenda Thompson, the institute’s president.
You can help prevent state budget cuts to early childhood programs. Governor Pat Quinn’s recent budget proposed to cut funding to home visiting, child care and children’s mental health programs. If approved, these cuts will prevent some children and families from receiving services. It is not too late to prevent these cuts. Join the Ounce of Prevention Fund in Springfield for Early Childhood Advocacy Day to tell state legislators why early childhood programs are important. Together, we can ensure that children in your community get the vital services they need to grow up healthy and ready for success in school.
Rep. Tim Schmitz, R-Batavia, wants to test the public’s appetite for tax increases by allowing Illinoisans to voluntarily pay more on their income tax forms. The idea has its supporters, but critics say it’s nothing more than a misleading stunt.
Schmitz believes the amount of money put into the fund can also be used as “a first barometer” to determine whether the public will accept future tax increases — such as Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposal to raise the individual income tax from 3 percent to 4.5 percent.
Illinois is one of 22 states that, as of April 9, had legislation pending to raise tobacco taxes, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Gov. Pat Quinn highlighted cigarette taxes as part of a plan to decrease the state’s $11.5 billion budget deficit, and the plan, Senate Bill 44, predicts an additional $1 tax would generate at least $350 million more a year.
Quinn and the rest of Springfield likely will end up disappointed, said John Nothdurft, budget and tax legislative specialist for The Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based free-market think tank. Nothdurft in an April 1 paper stated that only 16 of the past 57 state tobacco tax hikes met or exceeded revenue estimates, and at least one, New Jersey, lost money.
Metra, Pace and the Chicago Transit Authority officials say their agencies need about $10 billion in capital funding to replace old cars, buses, locomotives, stations and rail infrastructure - and to expand and improve service in the future.
As it turns out, RTA leaders were preaching to the choir. Lawmakers from the city and suburbs agreed a capital program that helps public transit is long overdue.
Each of Illinois’ 177 legislators annually can dole out eight years of tuition as they see fit — any combination of two four-year scholarships, four two-year scholarships, or eight one-year scholarships.
About 1,500 students attend state universities each year with these waivers at a cost of $12.5 million to the universities.
“For every student that gets a waiver there, somebody else has to pay for it. So tuition goes up again. So all of those things go in to a calculation of how much tuition (universities) need to charge,” said Judy Erwin, executive director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education.
So-called “member initiatives” are, in effect, Illinois’ version of federal earmarks. They also have been a way for legislative leaders to reward or punish those who don’t follow their edicts.
A bill passed unanimously by the Illinois House earlier this month would bring more openness to the process and limit the power of a governor to block approved expenditures.
Introduced by state Rep. Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, House Bill 310’s cosponsors include Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, and Bill Mitchell, R-Forsyth.
Shining more light on these “initiatives” should cut down on wasteful, inappropriate spending. The Senate should approve HB 310, and Gov. Pat Quinn should sign it.
With that in mind, we think there is a bill that needs to be passed in the spirit of reform and in the interest of spending our transportation money wisely. It especially is important this year as Gov. Patrick Quinn is proposing to increase the gasoline tax to pay for all the work that has been ignored and needs to be done. If Springfield wants more of our money then they need to change the process in how they spend it.
That’s the essence of legislation sponsored chiefly by state Rep. Kathy Ryg, a Vernon Hills Democrat, and co-sponsored by Republican Rep. Sidney Mathias of Buffalo Grove. They have the backing of the planning groups Chicago Metropolis 2020 and the Metropolitan Planning Council.
“There is no decent system for making capital decisions in Illinois,” said George A. Ranney, president and CEO of Chicago Metropolis 2020. “Billions of dollars are spent on unfounded decisions or political decisions.”
And there lies the rub for legislators. Getting transportation dollars spent back home is a time-honored political tradition. Some of our elected leaders may not want to give up that power.
That’s just wrong. Granted, nobody wants voters hounding well-intentioned officials from office because of their unpopular yet arguably necessary acts. But there’s no evidence that this happens often in the 18 states that give voters the power to recall state officials: Only two U.S. governors— North Dakota’s Lynn Frazier in 1921 and California’s Gray Davis Jr. in 2003—ever have been recalled.
Illinois needs to be the 19th state and, with Jones retired, perhaps it will. The staff of his successor as Senate president, John Cullerton, counts seven House and Senate recall bills now in committees. Our favorite, sponsored by Sen. Dan Cronin and three other Republicans, would permit elections to recall state executive officers, members of the General Assembly and Supreme Court, appellate and circuit court judges.
Cullerton says he won’t block legislation that would put a recall amendment on the ballot, although he worries that including judges could crimp their ability to make decisions that could infuriate voters. The obvious retort is that moving to appointed rather than elected judges is a better way to protect their independence from public pressure. But if the only way to get a recall amendment is to give judges a carve-out, that’s better than the nothing we have now.
But in 18 years, Bowden hasn’t taken a penny. She runs on her record and occasionally hosts her own campaign events over homemade cream puffs and coffee.
While it’s become commonplace to scoff at elected officials - I often commit this space to griping about them - it’s also the media’s obligation to point out the good guys. In an occasional series on this page, “Public officials doing it right,” Bowden is the latest to earn that recognition.
Jackson boasts bringing tens of millions in juicy pork to Illinois’ Second Congressional District, on the South Side and south suburbs. His unflinching advocacy for a third airport in Peotone drew national attention and a recent $100 million green light from Gov. Quinn.
Now the headlines are getting ugly. Now the mouths at the Dirksen Federal Building are spilling salacious, off-the-record but damning details. Political “friends” of the Jackson family are allegedly chatting up investigators, about pay-to-play and quid pro quo.
Former Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley is expected to be sworn in Tuesday as an U.S. congressman. Quigley says he’ll continue to be a reformer and immediately start solving his constituents’ problems. But Paul Green, a political professor at Roosevelt University, says Quigley won’t have much clout in Congress.
GREEN: This is not the county board. No he’s not going to have the kind of access to the media. When people want to hear about Illinois there not going to go to Mike Quigley.
Ethan Hastert, the youngest son of former Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert, said Friday he is exploring a run as a Republican candidate against incumbent Bill Foster.
Manzullo, R-Egan, has never been keen on big government, except when he is using it to bring some modest pork projects back to the 16th District. But even I was a bit shocked by his strident tone, which to me expressed a deep frustration that the conservatives have lost the short-term debate about the role of government in our lives. It’s clear we’re going to get a whole lot more of it, which is no surprise. It’s what Barack Obama promised when he ran for president.
While two Republican congressmen from Illinois don’t agree with President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, they do have opinions on how it should be spent. Both Reps. Aaron Schock (R-Peoria) and John Shimkus (R-Collinsville) say now that the federal government has tried bailing out the banks and big businesses, they believe the federal government should do more to help small businesses.
Hundreds of farm workers inside a popular east Salinas church welcomed U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, waving their red union flags and chanting “Si Se Puede” on Friday evening.
Gutierrez told members of the United Farm Workers Union and other Salinas residents at St. Mary of the Nativity Church to organize and to demand that President Obama honor a promise he made during his campaign.
“He asked us to vote for him… and we did,” Gutierrez told the audience in Spanish. “He promised us that if we voted for him he would sign an immigration reform in the first year of his first term.”
Democrats, including Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), the lead sponsor of the House version of the 2007 McCain and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) comprehensive reform bill, applauded the agreement, but did not mention any of the potential new rifts it has caused.
But Congressional aides close to those discussions have said that the labor agreement could complicate those efforts.
About 150 people gathered last Friday at the UPS facility on Aurora’s far East Side as the delivery giant showcased one of seven hydraulic hybrid trucks the company has been working with the Environmental Protection Agency to develop during the last two years.
Among those in attendance was U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert, who applauded the collaboration between UPS and the EPA. Maintaining an emphasis on alternative energies is even more crucial now that gas prices have gone down and people are less worried about high fuel costs, Biggert said.
Fortune’s list, released Sunday, ranked companies by their revenue in 2008. Irving, Texas-based Exxon took in $442.85 billion in revenue last year, up almost 19 percent from 2007. The company also raked in the biggest annual profit, earning $45.2 billion.
Although it may have been a good year for Exxon and Wal-Mart, 2008 was far from rosy for most of remaining companies on the list. Overall earnings plunged 85 percent to $98.9 billion from $645 billion in 2007, the biggest one-year decline in the 55-year history of the Fortune 500 list.
Stokes is among 6,900 Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. employees from a nationwide work force of 18,000 who saw their pay rise to at least $10 an hour at the direction of company founder and CEO David Green. The increase applied to full-time, hourly workers.
The Illinois minimum wage, which is higher than the federal, is $7.75 an hour. It is scheduled to increase to $8 an hour on July 1 and $8.25 on July 1, 2010.
But as the worst economic downturn in decades strengthens its grip and sheds jobs at a faster pace than any time since the end of World War II, families are hunkering down and cutting back.
More than 570,000 people in Illinois were out of work in February — the most since 1983 — representing 8.6 percent of the work force.
The pain is hitting all industries — from the Chrysler plant in Belvidere to Caterpillar in Peoria; from steelmakers in Granite City to attorneys and bankers in Chicago. Cities are struggling to provide basic services. And homes continue to slip into foreclosure, as more laid-off workers miss mortgage payments.
So we’re going to have to be a tad more logical about this. We can’t leverage the courts to make people pay their debts. And it’s not OK to skip court because you can’t afford to be there.
So let’s follow a simple line of logic: Know whom you owe, how much you owe, and how you are going to pay it back, show up in court. And wear sunblock.
Gallaway found herself among the now nearly 2 million construction industry workers who are unemployed, according to U.S. government data. That’s about a 9 percent increase from last year.
In March alone, 126,000 construction jobs disappeared.
Many are trying to learn new skills in anticipation of a new job. Union officials say laborers logged 77 percent more training hours in 2008 than the average of the past five years. Already in 2009, that number has jumped 34 percent.
“I had no idea the impact it would have. You have no idea how many people are out of jobs,” he said. “The reality started to set in. It started getting to me.”
One in every 10 Americans today is on food stamps, putting the total at a record 32.2 million people.
Enrollment in the government’s anti-hunger program rose in 46 of the 50 states during January.
This month, recipients got a boost in benefits. The maximum monthly amount a person could receive increased by 13.6 percent, allowing a family of four a total of $668 in benefits.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley plan to announce federal economic stimulus money that will be spent to update the Chicago Transit Authority’s Blue Line trains.
Durbin and Daley have set a Monday morning news conference outside a Blue Line station. The mayor, senator and other public officials will announce that the money will be used to start repairs on the Blue Line. The goal is to remove slow zones along the train line.
“We’re trying to work this out,” he said. “They’ve been at the table. They’ve been talking to us about all these issues.”
The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that union leaders had been told the city might have to lay off 1,600 workers — but no sworn police officers or firefighters — unless organized labor agrees to another round of givebacks to eliminate a potential $300 million shortfall.
“The unions are understanding this,” said Daley. “No one wants to lay anybody off.”
Daley wouldn’t comment on a recent controversy for Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, who Friday ousted his cousin and top aide, Chief Financial Officer Donna Dunnings, amid questions about her dealings with a recently fired patronage worker. Daley supported Stroger when he replaced his father, John Stroger, as board president.
On Monday, Mayor Richard Daley is to announce that Thursday, William Shakespeare’s 445th birthday, is to be “Talk Like Shakespeare Day,” an occasion for Chicagoans to import the spoken words of the Bard of Avon into their everyday conversations.
Cook County Commissioner John Daley seems conflicted. He has been assured by the state’s attorney’s office that there’s nothing to prevent him from voting on contracts the Cook County Board gives to his insurance clients. Yet, rather than vote “yes” or “no,” Daley prefers to vote “present” when the board gives a contract to one of his clients.
“There’s a concern about appearance, the perception of it,” Daley says. “We concluded we do not have any economic interest simply because we provide brokerage service … I would just rather not be part of any of those votes.”
Chicago State University trustees said today they will announce their decision about the next university president at a board meeting April 29.
Meanwhile, nearly all of the committee members appointed to advise the trustees on the presidential search resigned today, saying they felt excluded from the process and therefore could not recommend either of the two finalists.
Champaign-Urbana took some time out Friday night to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the only black-owned radio station between Chicago and St. Louis.
“We’re going to be around another 20 years,” sales manager Dwayne Hubbard said Friday.
They’re not the only ones. Since news of StreetWise’s financial woes surfaced last week, donations have poured in, with as many as 300 individuals stepping up, offering gifts as little as $20 or $30 or whatever they could afford. Some big guns also have chipped in, including a single $25,000 donation.
StreetWise sounded the alarm bells last week, saying a $75,000 deficit had to be filled to keep its doors open. After just a few days of publicity, StreetWise is more than halfway there, with appointments with other potential large donors scheduled for the weeks ahead.
At a time when layoffs are legion and personal savings have been eviscerated, the overwhelming response says a lot about the spirit of this town. Chicagoans still have it in their hearts to dig deep to help.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton opened the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie on Sunday with a speech that thanked survivors for their courage to educate others during a time when genocide still unfolds across the world.
An estimated 12,000 people slogged through rain to attend the opening day’s ceremony, held beneath a tent outdoors, that included a videotaped statement by President Barack Obama and the appearance of Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, hip-hop violinist Miri Ben-Ari, the German ambassador to the United States and other dignitaries also participated in opening festivities. The $45 million museum culminates years of work by Holocaust survivors, who were stirred to take action in the mid-1970s when a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi group threatened to march in Skokie. The march never took place, but survivors formed a foundation and speakers bureau that opened a small storefront museum on Main Street.
“Harry Potter: The Exhibition” opens at the South Side museum April 30 and runs through Sept. 27. The Museum of Science and Industry will be the only Midwest location on the exhibit’s U.S. tour.
In an unprecedented move in the Chicago area, more than a dozen churches on the city’s West Side delivered coordinated sermons on sexual violence Sunday, saying it was time for a widespread but often hidden problem to be addressed from the pulpit.
Ninety-eight pedestrians were killed in vehicle-related accidents in the six-county Chicago region in 2007, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. Thirty-nine were in Chicago. Statewide, there were 171 pedestrian fatalities in 2007.
The proposed “must stop” law is needed to clarify the responsibilities of both drivers and pedestrians, said Dan Persky, legal counsel at the Active Transportation Alliance, which focuses on issues affecting bicyclists, pedestrians and transit riders.
Chicago Police are expected to go undercover Monday to catch drivers who do not yield to pedestrians on crosswalks. The police conducted a similar sting operation last year. Dozens of drivers were pulled over and given warnings. But police spokesperson Roderick Drew says law breakers this time can expect much worse.
Byrne figures the railroads have spent about $20 million so far on viaduct and street repair.
“They’re putting dollars into our infrastructure,” said Byrne, whose department meets weekly with the railroads. “They don’t want us telling them that their viaducts are unsafe. They understand it and they’re working with us. . . . I’m very happy with the progress we’re making.”
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is scheduled to be in federal court Monday but not as a prosecutor.
Fitzgerald will on the witness stand testifying in the case of a deputy U.S. Marshall who allegedly passed information on to the mob about a witness in the Witness Protection Program.
“Four years ago you could walk in the woods and find all kinds of stuff,” said Illinois State Police Master Sergeant Daryl Grammer, who leads the meth unit in southern Illinois. “It’s getting harder to find now.”
Although police made fewer arrests, the amount of the various forms of meth seized was about 10 times greater in 2008 than in 2007.
U.S. manufacturers, including major drugmakers, have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that often provide drinking water — contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked, according to an Associated Press investigation.
CRESTWOOD, Ill. — Officials in a south Chicago suburb knowingly drew drinking water from a contaminated well for more than two decades, even after warnings by state environmental officials, according to a published report.
Records show Environmental Protection Agency officials cited contaminated tap water in Crestwood in the mid-1980s, saying it contained dangerous chemicals related to a dry-cleaning solvent, according to Sunday editions of the Chicago Tribune.
The water was contaminated with chemicals linked to perchloroethylene, or PCE, which is believed to cause cancer.
At times, 20 percent of the village’s water supply came from the contaminated well, according to the Tribune.
Since then, the EPA has cited Crestwood twice for violating environmental laws, yet has failed to notify people who drank the well water for years. The agency continues to investigate, and Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan’s office also is looking into the matter.
“Our goal is to be mainstream Chicago,” said Jay Blunk, the senior vice-president of business operations. “That’s what winning will do for us.”
Look no further than the television audience for the first game against Calgary. The Hawks did a 4.45 rating on Comcast SportNet, meaning an estimated 155,000 households tuned in. That was the highest local cable rating in 15 years for the Hawks.
For the last 90 minutes of the overtime thriller from 9-10:30 p.m., the game was the highest rated program in the Chicago area for adults, ages 25-54, the key demographic for advertisers.
